Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) fintech Klarna has launched a Klarna Creator app for retailers and influencers to collaborate on brand campaigns.
Over 500,000 vetted creators can connect directly with brands and retailers via Klarna’s creator platform, where retailers can send products directly to creators they want to partner with. The app can track sales and commissions and can be used on desktops, iOS, or Android platforms.
“Creators are now at the heart of online shopping, helping consumers to discover brands and products in more authentic and immediate ways than ever before. We see this in our data,” explains Klarna.
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End-to-end solution
A representative consumer survey in quarter three with 1033 US respondents found that 37% of purchases made on social media platforms are bought from influencer accounts.
Furthermore, according to Forbes, the creator economy is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion and growing. This makes creator marketing a key growth channel for brands in the future. However, retailers looking to tap into this opportunity report that they struggle with sourcing the right creators and measuring engagement with their target audience.
Meanwhile, it’s challenging for creators to make a living and stand out in a crowded market. Most creators have to handle lead generation, contracts, billing, and administration alone, leaving little time to create engaging content.
“Our new Creator Platform solves this by providing an end-to-end solution to connect retailers with the right creators and automate everything from initial outreach and managing partnerships to tracking sales and commissions,” explains Klarna.
“This way, creators can directly access the world’s leading retailers to recommend hundreds of thousands of products to their social media followers, helping them to scale their activities and monetize their influence. At the same time, we enable our retail partners to take the guesswork out of their creator campaigns by showing them which talents fit their brand and which channels are performing best. On average, our retail partners see their influencer sales tripling after joining our Creator Platform.”
Onboarding influencers
To be onboarded to the platform, creators simply apply for access here to undergo Klarna’s validation process. This ensures that only trusted brands and credible creators are active on the platform. They look for creators with high-quality content posted several times a week and highly engaged followers on at least one social media platform. Once on board, creators can use the Klarna Creator App to generate commissionable affiliate links, track their performance across channels, and communicate with brands.
The broader impact on the creative community
By lowering the barriers and making it easy for creators to scale their operations using the Klarna creator platform, they hope to empower more creators to monetize their talent and make a living with their content.
Klarna continues, “through the power of our performance analytics, we also believe we can help creators improve their craft and create more relevant content for their communities. Finally, with the Creator Platform, we enable creators to syndicate their content directly into the new shoppable video feed in the Klarna App, where millions of high-intent shoppers are looking for shopping inspiration. This way, we empower creators to reach new audiences they did not have access. Simultaneously, we help shoppers on their path to purchase and drive retailers’ growth.”
Long term
They are pleased with the resonance so far. After their US announcement in October, there was a significant spike in sign-ups and an influx of inquiries from other markets. As a next step, they will expand the Creator Platform to the rest of Klarna’s 45 markets this year, empowering creators to work with brands from all over the world and vice versa. It will be interesting to see how this evolves.
Speaking to co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski about the launch of the new search feature, shoppable video feed, and creator platform in the U.S., he said.
“Consumers have extremely high expectations around how they shop and pay. Whether they prefer to pay immediately, later, or over time, Klarna enables 150 million people worldwide to buy more confidently while saving them time and money along the way,” Siemiatkowski said.
“But payments only solve one part of the puzzle. Today’s new products mark a major milestone in Klarna’s evolution to become a place where consumers and retailers can search, discover, and create. From inspiring product discovery to delivery tracking, digital receipts, and seamless returns – we are powering e-commerce and accelerating trade worldwide.”
